Thursday, February 19, 2009

Monkey Munch or Chex's Muddy BuddiesOne Delicious Bowl of Goodness

For my last three baking endeavors, my oven has been either (1) giving me attitude or (2) crying out for help. I turn it on, it doesn't heat up for a long time or gets stuck at 250-275 F until I put it on broil to "wake it up." Once, it got up to 350 right away and then fell back to 250 within 20 minutes. Perhaps this is why my little 4" Devil's Food cakes took 45 minutes to cook! Sigh.

So, until the Southern California Gas comes out to calibrate the oven and check it out (such a great free service...and I just hope I don't need a new oven like Madam Chow), I'm going to try to make "short bake" items such as cookies and no-bake items such as this crazy yummy Monkey Munch or Muddy Buddies.

I doled them out in 3 dozen nut & party cups to bring to work.(By the way, you can get a boatload of these sooo cheap at Smart & Final (sorry, S&F are only in CA, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico)

Jon and Kate Plus 8 make this on their show and "I'm-getting-really-tired-of-you-but-your-kids-are-so-damn-cute-I-keep-watching-the-show-with-you-on-MUTE" Kate calls it Monkey Munch.

9 cups Chex Mix (I used Rice Chex). Mix the melted mixture with the cereal then pop it into large ziploc bags with powdered sugar. Shake and spread out on a cookie sheet. And that's it! It would be a lot of fun to make with kids as they get to shake, shake, shake and then eat, eat, eat! I'm going to make this with my niece and nephews real soon.

Monkey Munch. Muddy Buddies. Or even Monkey Buddies. Whatever the name, I could eat a gallon of this stuff. Make it in a quick minute! Here's the recipe!

I am so going to try these on the weekend I have my 8 children. (I have 4 full time of my own under 11, and every other weekend I have 4 stepchildren under 12) This would be a perfect project for them!

I can only imagine how addicting this must be. The first time I saw this was on Jon and Kate plus 8, which I used to love but stopped watching. Those kids are so big now that it makes me kinda sad. Too bad the whole Aunt Jodi thing happened.

We always called this "puppy chow," which sounds much less appetizing than "monkey munch." But, no matter what you call it, this is one of my favorite snacks! I'm so glad to see it getting some credit in the blogosphere. Seriously, this one is dangerous: I make a batch and then can't keep myself away!

ohhh I really really really like this. I think I'll try and make some this weekend. I bet my son would be totally into these. By the way you MUST be the best co-worker ever. All my co-workers ever bring me in a really grumpy attitude.

I love these little things. They used to confuse me so much because I felt like the flavor was coming from inside the Chex, but I guess it seeps in! They are yummy though. I don't watch Jon and Kate, but I saw Kate on Larry King recently and she really needs a new hairstyle!

I'm not sure that John won't kill Kate one of these days. Love this recipe. In our neck of the woods we call this "puppy chow" or "people chow." Either way, if it's in the house, it sure isn't there for long!May need to make this tomorrow!

This is one of my favorite desserts! I usually add way more confectioners sugar to mine. I found that if you add 1/4 stick of butter, then the chocolate gets kind of lumpy and forms these really tasty clumps of chocolate with the cereal. But if you eliminate the butter all together if coats the cereal really evenly.

I just got 12 boxes of honey-nut chex cereal (I couldn't resist! It was only $.22 per box). Thank you for reminding me of this recipe! I like chex, but I think I'd have gotten pretty sick of it by the end of 12 boxes, haha.

We call it Puppy Chow before Chex rebranded it "Muddy Buddies" and put the recipe on the box. I found an old recipe from my Grandmother that has to be from around the 60s and she titled it "Puppy Chow" too and her recipe is so old it calls for Oleo. Ha!

This stuff is crack for kids. If your mom brought it to school you were so cool.

This neck of the woods we call it puppy chow and leave out the vanilla. Real reason Im leaving comment id tell everyone that my kids when they were younger wouldnt eat this. They thought it was real puppy and dog food. Even after I ate some. Wouldnt know it now by how quick it disappears. : )